Measurement of the circular polarization in radio emission from extensive air showers confirms emission mechanisms

Abstract

We report here on a novel analysis of the complete set of four Stokes parameters that uniquely determine the linear and/or circular polarization of the radio signal for an extensive air shower. The observed dependency of the circular polarization on azimuth angle and distance to the shower axis is a clear signature of the interfering contributions from two different radiation mechanisms, a main contribution due to a geomagnetically-induced transverse current and a secondary component due to the build-up of excess charge at the shower front. The data, as measured at LOFAR, agree very well with a calculation from first principles. This opens the possibility to use circular polarization as an investigative tool in the analysis of air shower structure, such as for the determination of atmospheric electric fields.

Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

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• Radio detection of Cosmic-Ray Air Showers and High-Energy Neutrinos
• NuRadioReco: A reconstruction framework for radio neutrino detectors
• Calibration of the LOFAR low-band antennas using the Galaxy and a model of the signal chain
• Analytic calculation of radio emission from parameterized extensive air showers, a tool to extract shower parameters
• Reconstructing the arrival direction of neutrinos in deep in-ice radio detectors
• Final results of the LOPES radio interferometer for cosmic-ray air showers
• On the nature of radio-wave radiation from particle cascades
• Refractive displacement of the radio-emission footprint of inclined air showers simulated with CoREAS
• Measuring the Polarization Reconstruction Resolution of the ARIANNA Neutrino Detector with Cosmic Rays
• Parametrization of the Relative Amplitude of Geomagnetic and Askaryan Radio Emission from Cosmic-Ray Air Showers using CORSIKA/CoREAS Simulations (ICRC2021)